KOTOR: Rememberance
by YARNfics
Summary: I didn't forget who I am. I am Darth Revan, Lord of the Sith. I am the Master-level jedi Cassisk Deks. I know of both the light and the dark and the nature of the force. My apprentice has betrayed me and my former masters have tried to chain me. I am free of them. And now my slate is clean. I will save the galaxy from them and the coming darkness. I will not give up.
1. Chapter 1

Cassisk Deks - who preferred to be called Cass by friends - former Master of the Sith, Darth Revan - and former up and coming prodigy of the jedi order - woke with a bang as the sound of loud explosion filled the air. He shook his head and sat up realizing he was stripped to his underclothes and his lightsaber was not at his side. A loud explosion rocked the floor and he scowled at the general situation he was in. He frowned as he remembered what the council had tried to do, what they wanted him to didn't know that the blocks he had placed on the innermost parts of his memories and knowledge - his mind - made the false identity they tried to give him break against them. But their attempt to breach his mind did do something to his memories, his safeguards triggered when they got a bit too close and forcefully lobotomized the location of the Star Forge and where exactly the star maps were from his mind.

And of something else... he wasn't sure what.

But the most important thing was there, he knew who he was.

He was a Sith Lord.

He was a Jedi Master.

And it was long time since he had accepted both sides of the force wholeheartedly.

He got up and to his feet when the floor rolled and tilted sideways again.

He awkwardly staggered and growled, "Great, this is just what I needed..."

At that moment, a republic soldier came running through the doors that hissed open.

'Here we go...' Cassisk thought.

* * *

After a hasty introduction to a republic soldier name Trask Ulgo and quick suit up in some natural clothing and arming himself with a short sword and blaster, Cassisk was more or less ready to go. He frowned at the insubstantial weapons he had on hand but he had made it through bad situations with worse equipment. If he was extremely lucky and the Force was especially generous, he might get a chance to grab a lightsaber or a vibrosword at the very most. Cass went with Trask to get to the bridge and hopefully collect Bastila.

There was a burst transmission from an admiral named Carth Onasi, warning the two that the ship was beginning to critically fail. Mentally noting this, Cass barely made it through the second doorway since he woke up before he saw Sith and Republic soldiers trading fire in front. The two republic soldiers were gunned down and the Sith turned their focus onto Trask and Cassisk.

"These Sith must be the advance boarding party!" Trask roared as he charged, "For the Republic!"

The incognito force-user fought the urge to facepalm, could there be a more cliche line?

For trained soldiers though, they weren't even a match for a Jedi Master/Sith Lord. Weaving through the lasers, Cassisk stretched out his hand and tweaked the panel on the wall next to Sith and made it explode. As the Sith recoiled from the sudden explosion, Cassisk dashed in and slashed quickly in quick succession, killing both of the soldiers. He inwardly sighed in discontent, for all that he had claimed the mantle of a sith, he still placed a great deal of value on his jedi teachings, and hated having to take life like this. He began to search the dead men and grabbed their credit chips and took a longsword off the body on one soldier.

"I wish I had my lightsaber..." Cassisk muttered mostly to himself, running his hand through his jet black hair, "Make my life easier."

"You had a lightsaber?" Trask inquired, "You're a jedi?"

'Damn me and my stupid tendency to think aloud when I am too preoccupied.' Cass groaned in his head as he gave a single nod.

"Where is it?"

Cass sighed, "Broken and I left it behind, I needed to find a replacement, not that I hope anyone dies, but if there is a lightsaber lying around a body, I am taking it."

Trask nodded somewhat stiffly at that.

They battled their way through the halls as they dispatched more sith, scavenging their bodies for weapons and credits that they could use later. Vibroblade and vibrosword in hand, the two approached the bridge when they came to a hall where two force-users were battling with lightsabers. The force whispered a warning and Cass waited, focusing on the fighters and their weapons. Trask looked like he wanted to rush to the jedi's help, but knew he would only get in the way. The jedi managed to spear the sith through the chest and the sith gasped, his lightsaber slipping from his grasp.

'Now!' Thought Cass fiercely, stretching his hand out.

The metal handgrip of the lightsaber flew from the dying sith's hand and shot through the air to smack into Cass' palm. Just as Cass caught it, a loud explosion erupted from in front of him and Trask, knocking them to the floor. Cass heard a cry from the female jedi and swiftly forced himself through the haze of disorientation and rushed to her downed form. He gently lifted her and checked her neck for a pulse. He was vaguely aware of Trask getting to his feet to stand by him.

There was nothing that pulsed under his fingers and the light that the jedi glimmered with was already fading from his perceptions.

Cass closed his eyes in a act of melancholy acceptance.

Just then, two Sith soldiers arrived and began to open fire. Trask stiffened and dove out of the way, but Cass raised his left hand and the multiple blaster bolts froze in the air, humming quietly. The two sith began to back away in fear as they realized they just attacked a jedi who was able to stop their bolts with ease. Cass made a flicking motion with his fingers and the blaster bolts flew back and struck the sith, killing them instantly. Trask looked in awe at the kneeling jedi before blinking at the solemn expression on his face as he slid the dead jedi's eyes closed and stood up. The dead jedi's sparking lightsaber floated up and clipped itself to Cass' belt. Cass quickly and quietly strapped the vibrosword he had been using to his back.

"We should go." Cass said quietly, a red bar of plasma erupting from his newly acquired lightsaber, "The ship won't last much longer."

They stormed the bridge -which was practically a war-zone between republic and sith troops - and Cass sliced his way through two Sith before the front of the bridge exploded, killing the soldiers battling and knocking the two men down once again.

When Trask got up he gingerly felt his head and swiped at a trickle of blood that was dripping form a scrape on his forehead, "Bastila isn't here! She's probably gone to the escape pods!"

Cass nodded and they ran to the next corridor.

Trask walked to the door and opened it only to be faced with a dark jedi who was twirling a double-bladed lightsaber.

'Malak's apprentice!' Cass snarled in his head as lightning crackled down his hand.

"Shit, a dark jedi!" Trask gasped - not seeing the lightning - before scowling and readying his vibroblade in hand, "Go on without me!"

Cass was about to protest but Trask stepped forward and the door slid to close behind him and exploded, melting itself closed. The ship listed to the right and even from there, he felt Trask's life begin to fade.

Cass gaped at Trask's actions before scowling, "You damn fool."

Cass ran through the door to the pods.

* * *

Carth radioed him to tell him he was the last republic soldier alive on the ship and he needed to hurry. With that sobering knowledge, Cass stormed his way to the escape pods, forcing his way through the opposition with the power and finesse of a Jedi master who was focused on a single goal and was willing to destroy anything in his way. When soldiers tried to stop them he either roasted them with lightning, smashed them aside with a sharp wave of his hand, or sliced through them. When he arrived at the pods, Carth turned to him before going white and backing away from him pausing only to point his blaster and aim at him.

"Dammit! Dammit! Dammit!" Carth growled as he squeezed off several shots.

Cass carefully deflected them off to the side, scowling in realization, "I am not a Sith! I am a Jedi!"

Carth paused, "You're using a red lightsaber, do you think I am blind?"

"Mine was damaged and I had to use this," Cass growled angrily, gesturing to the damaged blade at his waist, "I didn't have much in the way of choice! We need to go, NOW!"

Carth blinked and scowled but decided the man did have a point as they dove into the escape pod. It ejected from the ship mere moments before the Endar Spire was engulfed in flames and fell towards the planet.

"You're not a Sith?" Carth inquired suspiciously, hand still gripping his gun in a white-knuckled grip.

"No." sighed Cass triedly, clipping the lightsaber to his belt, "I'm not. While I was fighting, an explosion happened next to me and the force of it shorted out my lightsaber when I tried to turn it on. The sith that was killed had dropped his and so I grabbed it and began using it. I was fortunate enough that the design was similar enough to my own so that I wasn't struggling to flip it on. I guess I didn't consider how it would look. I'm sorry."

Cass didn't want to lie to Carth, but at this point it was the better option and would help him be more natural around him while acting as a jedi/sith around others.

Besides, Carth could probably help him find Bastila and he needed all the help he could get.

Carth stared at him as though to see if he could sense any deception before relaxing slightly, "I see... Sorry about attacking you then."

Cass waved a hand, "No, it's totally fine. It should have been expected really. There wasn't much time to change or deal with the color of my lightsaber so it was understandable."

Just then the escape pod bucked as it entered the atmosphere of the planet and Cass' head was slammed into the wall, knocking him out.

* * *

Cass was dreaming of his last moments as the Sith Lord.

He remembered the burning pain of the explosions and him weakly lifting off his now cracked and smoking mask to see Bastila's face with his own eyes.

He wanted her to be the last thing he saw.

"Hey Bas..." He whispered weakly, smiling softly at her distressed expression, "Good to see you..."

"Cass?" She whispered in slight awe, her clothing singed and cheek stained with soot, "Your eyes... they aren't yellow..."

He choked out a coughing chuckle, lifting a hand to touch her cheek gently, "Scared you? 'M sorry."

She held out her hand and closed her eyes, there was a surge in the force and Cass wounds began to slowly scab over and heal.

"Bas..!" He gasped at the feel the force screaming a warning at him, " Leave me behind...You need to go, the ship'll blow, you need -"

He felt something warm, connecting to -

"Damn the ship! You're not dying on me and I am not going without you!" She growled, tears in her eyes and her face scrunched up in frustrated pain and anger, "Why didn't you come back to the order?! I waited for you to come home you idiot!"

Cass felt himself slipping, weakly grasping at her arm, "Bas... go..."

He was swept away as he felt himself begin to float up in the air.

* * *

Cass woke with a start, something painful burning behind his eyes. He slowly sat up and squeezed his eyes shut as he pushed the phantom pains of his memories to the back of his head.

The agonized look on Bastila's face would haunt him till he saw her again.

"Hey, go easy on yourself." A familiar voice said, "You hit your head pretty hard, I had to drag you into this apartment from the pod. Barely got clear in time."

Cass blinked his eyes and looked at Carth who was sitting on a chair next his bed, "Carth Onasi? I owe you one, thanks."

Carth waved his hand in a dismissive gesture, "Don't mention it, I haven't left anyone behind before, I don't intend to start now or anytime soon. Here, catch."

Carth tossed a lightsaber at Cass who caught it, "Ah. Thanks. So, mind telling me what's going on?"

Carth leaned against the table in the middle of the room they were in and crossed his arms, "We are on Taris. Apparently all of the republic escape pods crashed here in various areas and we got lucky to land here. The sith have the whole planet under lockdown, they are all looking for any trace of Bastila. If they find her, things are going to go from bad to worse for the republic in a heartbeat."

A surge of protective anger washed through Cass, "What do they want with her?"

Carth gave Cass a puzzled look, "Don't you know? Man, that hit to your head did more than I thought. The sith want Bastila for her Battle Meditation, it's an ability to inspire her allies and make her foes lose faith through the force. Invaluable and battle and can totally change the tides of a fight if she uses it in time. Problem with Endar Spire was the attack was too fast for her to concentrate and use it in time to help us out. Still, we got lucky."

Cass sat up and lit the lightsaber to observed the glowing red blade, "In that case, I should probably keep this lightsaber the way it is for now."

Carth frowned at him, "Why?"

Cass turned to him, clipping the lightsaber back to his belt as he stood up "Dark jedi use red lightsabers, right? With this, we can pose as Sith and no one would bat an eye."

Carth nodded slightly at that, "That's true... no one would be able to tell. Smart."

Cass smirked, "Thanks. But if I am going to pull this off, I am going to half to be... well act more sith-like."

Carth frowned at that but subsided at the logic.

They couldn't afford any mistakes if they wanted to find Bastila.

"We should get moving, if we can get to Bas-s-stila first, we can make sure the sith don't get her." Cass stuttered slightly as he mentally kicked himself for nearly using her nickname.

Carth face became more solemn and nodded, "Right. I did a bit of scouting while you were out and got a decent idea of where most of the pods landed. From what I gathered, they crashed mostly into the planet floor, called the undercity. We can use this apartment to base out of while looking for her."

"Alright." Cass said, "While looking, we also should see if any opportunities for extra credits might present themselves. It's not a priority, but credits will probably go a long way in in helping us get through the city."

Carth checked his blasters and stood up, "Let's go."

* * *

It was just their luck that they stepped out into the halls to see a sith officer flanked by two droids yelling at two aliens.

"This is a raid, you alien scum!" He roared, "Get against the wall!"

"You sith raided us yesterday!" An alien protested indignantly, "They didn't find anything then, why do keep -"

He didn't get to say anything more as a blaster bolt from the sith officer's rifle hit him in the chest.

"Does anyone else have any smart-aleck remarks to say to -" The officer began when his eyes drifted to Cass and Carth.

Cass was already holding his saber while Carth gripped the handles of his guns.

"Humans? Hiding among this alien filth?" The office pondered before his eyes widened with dawning realization, "They're republic fugitives! Get them!"

Cass swirled and the lightsaber ignited with a ' _snap-hiss'_ as it sliced through the droids in front the officer who stumbled back in shock. Carth blasted the officer off his feet with several precise shots.

"Nice." Cass commented appreciatively as he deactivated his lightsaber and twirled it in his hand before he returned it to his belt.

Carth shrugged.

The duros was kneeling next to his fallen friend and shook his head sadly, "Poor Igxil. He was always too brave for his own good."

"Will you be okay?" Cass inquired, "Won't the sith come looking for the bodies?"

The duros shook his head, "I will hide the bodies so it looks like they were never here. Thank you for your assistance."

Cass shrugged at that, "It's fine. We need to get moving as it is."

After a quick looting of the corpses, we crossed walked down the hallway until we got to the exit and stepped out into the sunlight.


	2. Chapter 2

In all honesty, Taris wasn't quite as good as Cass once remembered.

And even then good was a rather... generous description.

Despite the fact that Taris was long past its golden years, it was still a decent place to trade and refuel if you had to ( the fact Tarisian Ale was probably one of the best tasting drinks in the galaxy was probably the only thing that kept this planet afloat). Any of what remained of that was now over and the sudden dive in quality may have had more to do with the tension in the air and the fact that sith troops were stalking the streets. Cass' hand absently drifted to his lightsaber at his belt as he scanned the forces that were around him. This wasn't good for Cass or Carth, the sith were now in out en masse in the search for republic soldiers and/or Bastila. They were constantly scanning the streets and Cass even noticed them poking around the crashed escape pod that was probably Carth and his escape vessel out of the Endar Spire.

"We need information. More than we already have." Carth mumbled, "We should probably find the cantina, that'll be the best bet to catch any stray rumors and see what anyone and everyone knows."

Cass nodded, "Maybe there's even a chance to make some money, you any good at Pazzak?"

Carth shrugged, "I'm pretty decent but I don't anything in the way of a deck, without that..."

He shrugged helplessly.

Cass scrubbed hand through his hair in a slightly annoyed fashion at that, "Whatever, we can worry about getting money in the cantina."

They quickly made his way through the street and into the cantina where a sith guard was leaning against the wall. He gave them a casual once-over when his landed on the lightsaber hanging at Cass' waist. He straightened and his hand drifted to his holster.

"Identify yourself!" He commanded.

Carth stiffened but Cass stepped forward, his presence darkening as lightning crackled up and down his arms and his hand using the force to yank the guard to him while simultaneously locking his arms to his sides.

"You dare?" He hissed, voice low an unyielding, "You dare question me? A Sith Lord? I should kill you for your insubordination!"

His lightsaber ignited and floated till the humming blade was an inch from the man's throat, the fear he felt in the man spiked.

"Please!" He whimpered, "I apologize! I was simply making sure you weren't a jedi! Please forgive me!"

Cass seemed to consider it and dropped the man, "See that you remember who you are speaking to and never question me again, do you understand?"

The man nodded frantically and Cass waved his hand, "You will remember this man as my guard and simply know that there is another Sith Lord on this planet."

His face smoothed over and his eyes glazed, "I will remember that man as your guard and simply know that there is another Sith Lord on this planet."

Carth looked at Cass, "Couldn't you have done that from the start?"

Cass shrugged but nodded, "Yeah, but I need to make sure that I enforce the presence of a Sith with a lightsaber as well as an explanation as to why you're tagging along. He won't be able to give details since he won't exactly remember anything but me threatening to fry him from the top down, but no one will want to know more in case they bring my wrath down on their head."

Carth blinked, "You've thought this through..."

Cass groaned and flung his hands in the air, "Is that really so hard to believe? Why does everyone think I am an idiot?"

* * *

After a quick bit of force-mind-wrangling, Cass managed to get a old-time gambler to give his pazzak deck to Carth and excused himself from the game table to see if he could find some information regarding the pods (with a small does of force manipulation surrounding him to help his odds). Unfortunately, he couldn't pick out any really valuable stray thoughts in the sea of voices. There was a general resentment of the sith for the blockade of the planet that was palpable, and a few more drunken slurs among the patrons regarding how the sith were assholes and how they ruined everything. Any sith that were in there didn't have much in the way of knowledge when it came to the pods aside from them crashing in the undercity and with strict orders to never divulge even that to the populace. With that sobering knowledge, he walked into a alcove where there was a hut and a view screen showing two men in a ring. It wasn't much of a fight, especially since one of the combatant's blaster slipped out of his grasp as he attempted to twirl it in his hand.

The hutt began to collect winnings and Cass rubbed his chin, "Hmmm..."

* * *

"The Duel Ring?" Carth inquired dubiously.

"Yeah," Cas replied, checking the calibration of his blasters, "If nothing else, we do gain a cut of the profits when the betting is made, and I can beat them easily."

"You gonna use your lightsaber?" Carth inquired.

Cass frowned and shook his head, "No chance, a lightsaber - no matter what color - will only draw attention to us. And the sith may not usually care but they do keep an eye on the duels to the point that they will inquire as to how I got a lightsaber. And I don't think a sith would be particularly interested in wiping the floor with people they consider to be no one. If I say I was transferred, they might ask by who and for a verification. There are a slew of other question we won't be able to answer and I can't keep mind-tricking every sith we come across due to the fact that they will notice large enough inconsistencies that they will have to do a planet-wide hunt. They find us? I think we are more than able to handle squads of blaster-wielding goons alone, but add in the apprentices and lords with vibroblades and lightsabers? I can fight pretty well, but distractions will cost us time and energy we don't have to spare. Hell, Malak might just call down a bombing if Bastila isn't found soon and that might be a bit too much for the two of us as we don't have anything in the way of knowledge."

'Malak was never my equal, so I could take him,' Cass thought grumpily, 'But I can't afford to let him know I lived through his treachery just yet.'

"I will keep it on me just in case but I'll be using a vibrosword I've been holding onto instead." Cass continued, "You work the locals, see what you can get."

Carth frowned, "And the timeline you set?"

Cass sighed, "I get that we have to move fast, so I'll try to hurry this up. I know we need to move fast but anything we have to tip the scales will work better for us."

With that he strode over to the Hutt - 'Ajuur' the force whispered - and inclined his head in a shallow nod of respect, he wouldn't bow to anyone, but he knew anything to help sweeten his end of a deal would be beneficial.

"Hello, my name is Cassisk Deks." Cass said, "I would like to participate in the dueling ring."

Ajuur blinked at Cass and chortled, "Ah a new face? You want to participate in the dueling ring?"

Cass nodded, he didn't see much point in repeating himself to the hutt.

"That's good." Ajuur said, looking thoughtful (or rather sounding thoughtful as a hutt's bloated face never really had the capability to really shift all that much due to their fat), "The matches have grown rather stale with the same fighters always dueling each other. I could use some new fighters. However, you do need a ring name."

"Can't I just use my real name?" Cass sighed, he really didn't need any extra hoops to jump through.

"Everyone has one," Ajuur replied shortly, "so you will take one too. How about... The Mysterious Stranger? No history, no past, just coming from nowhere to fight? Yes... it's a good name."

"Does have a bit of nice ring to it." Cass admitted.

'And no one will think a mysterious stranger is actually a jedi or something...' he thought dryly.

* * *

Being in the waiting room with 'Deadeye' Duncan was...

Annoying.

"Ha!" He crowed, "Just what I need to break my losing streak! Fresh meat! You're going down!"

Cass didn't do anything but simply adjust his gloves on his hands and roll his neck, there was no point in getting in taunting him or replying to any of his verbal snipes.

He wasn't worth the air.

They strode out into the ring and faced each other. Duncan waved at the crowd as Cass simply waited. The announcer gave a usual spiel about who they were and how Duncan was after fresh meat.

The gong sounded and Duncan yanked his blaster out of his hand and pointed it at Cass, squeezing the trigger. Cass only raised an eyebrow in question as the blaster bolt went widely to his right and impacted the floor behind him. Cass slowly began to walk forward and drew a vibrosword, twirling it once in his hand to get a feel for the weight before holding it in an loose grip for the tip to continuously scrape at the ground. Duncan squeezed off a few more shots and began to panic as Cass closed the distance at an unhurried pace as though he was simply taking a stroll. Duncan fumbled with his blaster as he shoved it into his holster and yanked out a short sword and ran at Cass with a shout.

Cass sighed in utter disappointment at the clearly desperate charge.

Why was this guy even a duelist?

Cass ducked and dodged the haphazard swings of the duelist as the frazzled man tried to score a single blow. Unimpressed, Cass did the most practical thing.

Deck Duncan hard enough to knock him out in a single blow.

There was an loud thud as Duncan crumpled.

'Strange,' Cass thought absently as the results were called, 'I thought being knocked around all the time would at least be able to make him sturdy...'

* * *

Cass gathered his credits and went over to Carth who was leaning against the wall next to a view-screen.

"Did you find anything useful at all?" Cass inquired quietly.

Carth grimaced, "No. I made a few credits, but other than that, I couldn't hear anything that'll help us out. Even when drunk, the sith can't spill any secrets because they aren't being told anything about the pods other than they are in the undercity and need to be found immediately."

Cass sighed but rubbed his chin, "Maybe we can get down to the undercity..."

Carth shook his head, "We need to at least have uniforms for that, papers at best. Without those we won't be going very far before the sith stop the lift and grab us. We could use your saber, but you said you want a low profile, right?"

"We can use it if it's an emergency." Cass replied.

"Fine." Carth agreed with a shrug.

Cass looked around and his eyes landed on a rather pretty lady who the force told him was a sith.

A smirk stretched across his lips, "Hey Carth..."

"Yeah...?" Carth looked a bit wary of the mischievous smirk that was on Cass' face.

"How good are you at charming the ladies?" Cass snickered.

* * *

With Carth sent to seduce/flatter/flirt with the soldier, Cass meandered back into the duel ring. He was going to take them all out. He may have not found anyone who was challenging, but he was competitive as hell.

Besides, he was bored.

Duncan was sending him a look as he walked by that was equally sulky as it was murderous.

Gerlon approached him, "Well stranger, looks like you'll be fighting me next. You'd better be careful."

Cass simply stared and nodded, "Right."

Then he went to Ajuur to get his winnings and go for the next round.

* * *

The gong sounded and Cass didn't spend his time to intimidate Gerlon as he did Duncan. Gerlon may have lost the full use of his hand, but was a vast improvement over Duncan in marksmanship (not that it was particularly hard thing to do). Cass weaved in between blaster bolts before leaping into striking range. Gerlon backpedalled, drawing a blade with obvious distaste in his face. He was still better than Duncan (again not hard to do), but wasn't worth mention to a sith lord. Cass didn't limit himself with only slashing at Gerlon, he would occasionally launch a punch into Gerlon's torso and arm, forcing Gerlon to move away with a pained hiss. Finally, Cass stopped toying with his opponent and kicked him hard enough to fold over his foot and stamped down to smash the pommel of the vibrosword into Gerlon's temple.

Gerlon collapsed like a marionette with its strings cut.

* * *

Gerlon snarled about the loss of his dexterity claiming that if not for that, he would have wiped the floor with Cass.

Cass once again didn't bother to reply and simply requested to move up once he gathered his credits.

* * *

Ice wasn't bad, she was good for a normal person who fought low-class fighters, Cass picked up on the fact that she thought he was another male fan. Cass inwardly snorted in derision. She was quick with a blaster and not too shabby with a sword but no match. She tried to duck behind him and strike but the force whispered a warning and Cass simply rolled forward as though his legs collapsed under him as he rolled forward away from the slash. He pivoted as he got to his feet to point his blade at Ice.

"I'm not a male fan of yours. Nor am I someone you can afford to hold back against." Cass murmured to her, the cadence of a sith lord sliding effortlessly into his tone, "You want to even give me a challenge? Try to kill me."

Ice blinked and twirled her blade right before she rushed him. Cass took simply began to block her strikes neatly and countered with lashed out with a high-kick that sent her down.

"Stay down." He said, "You're nowhere near enough to even make me try."

She glared and pushed herself to her feet.

Cass sighed, "Oh well, I tried."

She attacked with a furious advance but she clearly wasn't strong enough to force him back. She tried to shift to the side to keep him off balance, occasionally take a wide step to the side, trying to flank him. Cass simply stepped in close when she raised her sword for a heavy over-the-shoulder, simply using his hilt to block her hand from where she held her sword and - with his free hand - seizing the back of her head. He slammed his forehead into hers and kneed her in the gut. She gasped as she folded, a hand pressed to her gut in pain. Cass brought the sword down to knock her out, but she rolled to the side.

Cass didn't let her get up and simply followed up with a step-in-soccer kick as she stopped. She fell onto her side and he raised his blade.

"I give up!" She shouted.

Cass exhaled, "Smart."

* * *

Cass rolled his shoulders as he waited with Marl in the waiting room. He was pleasantly surprised that Marl was at least a polite conversationalist and wasn't throwing around trash talk. Gerlon wasn't bad, but he was always bitter over the loss of full mobility of his hand, ice was distant by nature, Deadeye was just trying to cover up the fact he was a utter weakling.

As the doors slid open, Cass nodded at Marl, "May the best man win."

Marl smiled, "Same."

The announcer called out the names and Marl carefully adjusted his stance as Cass raised his blade.

They moved.

Marl was better than Ice, much better, he was faster and stronger, using a double-vibroblade with enviable skill. He tried to keep Cass on the defensive with wide swings and thrusting stabs. Cass danced and ducked away, vibrosword flashing in the light of the arena. The crowd cheered and shouted as the two fighters battled their way across the arena. Marl began to sweat as he made no distinguishable headway against The Mysterious Stranger, this was no rookie who had been lucky to win.

This guy was actually too good.

Marl wasn't going to make look like he was holding back on him, even if he Mysterious Stranger looked like he wasn't even trying. But even pulling out ll the stops and trying all of his tricks, Marl was outclassed and ran out of stamina. He fell to one knee and panted as The Mysterious Stranger pointed the vibrosword at his head.

He sighed, "Yield."

* * *

Twitch was freaking insane.

He also had an insanely twitchy trigger finger. Blaster bolts fired in every conceivable direction and Twitch was laughing maniacally as I ducked and dodged. I sighed and drew my blaster, I would have liked my lightsaber in the fight or at least get close enough to draw my blade but this bastard wasn't giving me much of an opportunity to get close. I twisted out of the way of a spray of bolts and took two shots, the force guiding my hands and giving them a bit of lightning to stun him. The bolts hit him and he stumbled back, his limbs twitching as the small dose of force lightning I added coursed through his body. I used the force to bolster my speed and leapt at him, drawing my vibrosword and twirling it in my hand right before I brought it down on his head. With remarkable alacrity, Twitch drew a vibroblade and brought it up to block my overhand. I twisted with the block, using it as a point to revolve around and landed behind him.

He whirled to meet me but I didn't dither as I use a force-augmented uppercut to knock him on his back. Before he could reorient himself, I stomped on his neck, just shy of choking him. He gasped and gagged and I let out a small sigh.

"Yield." I commanded.

Twitch proved that under his utter insanity he knew when he was outmatched and decided to concede.


End file.
